1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to docking devices in general, and in particular to a docking device capable of being mechanically and electrically connected to a portable computer to expand the capabilities of the portable computer.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, portable computers such as laptop personal computers (laptop PCs) have become ubiquitous. The capabilities of a laptop PC can be expanded without, compromising its portability via a docking device.
A docking device is a box-shaped appliance including various connection terminals such as a serial port and a parallel port, drives such as a CD-ROM drive and a DVD drive, and expansion slots. A connector for connecting to a connector of a laptop PC is provided on a top surface of the docking device. By mounting (docking) the laptop PC on the top surface of the docking device and connecting the connector of the laptop PC to the connector of the docking device, the capabilities of the docking device can be used as the capabilities of the laptop PC, thereby expanding the capabilities of the laptop PC.
For many laptop PCs, a packaged battery (battery pack) is detachably mounted to a laptop PC and used as a power source so that the laptop PC can be driven even in a place where commercial power is not available. In view of this, a docking device may include a function of charging a spare battery pack that is prepared separately from the battery pack mounted to the laptop PC. The docking device having the battery pack charging function includes a charging connector on its side surface, and a battery connector of the battery pack is connected to the charging connector in order to enable the battery pack to be charged.
When the docking device is being lifted by a user in a state where the battery connector is connected to the charging connector of the docking device, the battery pack leaves a plane of placement such as a desk, and as a result, the weight of the battery pack is put on the connection part with the docking device, which raises a possibility that the battery pack may drop off from the docking device. When the battery pack drops off from the docking device located at a high position and crashes to the ground, there is a danger that the battery pack may get damaged on impact.